Monsignor Pope Ping!
A quote that struck me long ago:
“Since the life of Christ is in every way bitter to the I and the Self and the Me...therefore Nature hath a horror of it”
There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
G.K. Chesterton
Probably two good reasons why atheists and seculars react in such a way. The first one is 'they' deep down know there is the God and Creator of all and He has rules they don't like. They also think God is a 'bully' to press rules on humans. So it all goes back to pride and arrogance. They know, but reject Him.
The reason seculars also despise Christians in the US is because they know we will not 'go away' very easily. They want us to retreat to our churches and be relegated to 'ghetto' status.
Although I do prefer the Protestant brand of Christianity.
Protestants are hated as much as Catholics. Ask the Buddhists how the Chi-coms treat them. Ask the Jews how things are going for them in the world.
The most tolerated and power dominating religions on the earth today are atheists, Satanists and Islamists. These groups hate the sight and sound of all Christians and Jews.
Ping to read later. I remember Joe Sobran from when he used to publish in National Review. And for the essay The Reluctant Anarchist.
A private aside to avoid the anti-Catholic Protestants having it to latch onto. And I agree with Msgr. Pope.
For some today the hatred is from when the Catholic Church as a political institution as well as being the center of Christianity. These folks can’t separate the two and that the political Catholic Church that ruled parts of Italy and its mission of proclaiming the gospel. One unfortunately sees this particular reason for hating the Catholic Church is in some Protestant sects where they are continuing to fight the wars of the Protestant Reformation.
And atheists use these same arguments in addition to their attacks on scripture.
Below are excerpts from two individuals from America's history, one who had a distinct role in its founding, and another whose summation of the life of Jesus poses important challenges even today.
Sobran reminds me of the reactions to Jesus of these two individuals, and of how they chose to express those reactions.
It was over two centuries ago, the same Thomas Jefferson who penned that Declaration of Independence which, he wrote, reflected "the American mind" of the time, in others of his writings, Jefferson stated that Jesus "preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence," that "a system of morals is presented to us [by Jesus], which, if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man."
He wrote, "His moral doctrines...were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers...and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants, and common aids," which, Jefferson said, "will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others."
Comparing the Hebrew code which, according to Jefferson, "laid hold of actions only," "He [Jesus] pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head."
The other American, quoted below, was an A.M.E. Bishop and State of Ohio Legislator, speaking in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the U. S. of America, within the first decade following the Civil War:
"Withdraw from Christendom the Bible, the Church with its sacraments and ministry, and Christian morality and hopes, and aspirations for time and eternity; repeal all the laws that are founded in the Christian Scriptures; remove the Christian humanities in the form of hospitals and asylums, and reformatories and institutions of mercy utterly unknown to unchristian countries; destroy the literature, the culture, the institutions of learning, the art, the refinement, the place of woman in her home and in society, which owe their origin and power to Christianity; blot out all faith in Divine Providence, love, and righteousness; turn back every believer in Christ to his former state; remove all thought or hope of the forgiveness of sins by a just but gracious God; erase the name of Christ from every register it sanctifies—in a word annihilate all the legitimate and logical effects of Christianity in Christendom—just accomplish in fact what multitudes of gifted and learned minds are wishing and trying to accomplish by their science, philosophy, and criticism, and what multitudes of the common people desire and seek, and not only would all progress toward and unto perfection cease, but not one of the shining lights of infidelity would shine much longer. Yes, the bitterest enemies of this holy and blessed religion, owe their ability to be enemies to its sacred revelations - to the inspiration and sublimity of that faith which reflects its glories on their hostile natures. They live in the strength of that which they would destroy. They are raised to their seats of opportunity and power by the grace of Him they would crucify afresh; and is it to be thought that they are stronger than that which gives them strength? Can it be supposed that a religion which civilizes and subdues, and elevates and blesses will succumb to the enmities it may arouse and quicken in its onward march? Are we to tremble for the ark of God when God is its upholder, and protector, and preserver?” - Dr. Benjaming W. Arnett, St. Paul A.M.E. Church, Urbana, Ohio, Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon, November 1876
Funny how the author falsely imagines "Protestants" aren't also part of "the church". Roman Catholicism has deserved much of the animosity aimed at it. Comparing resistance to Jesus Christ and resistance to the Catholic church as somehow the same thing is ridiculous and elitist and WRONG.
Joe Sobran bump